HBO renews 'The Newsroom' and 'True Blood'

What an endorsement for Aaron Sorkin’s new drama TheNewsroom: After only two weeks on the air, HBO announced today that it has renewed the drama that stars Jeff Daniels as an irascible cable news anchor. The Newsroom tallied 2.7 million total viewers for its premiere night last week, which included the encore run.

The pay cabler also endorsed True Blood for another season. The season 5 premiere of the drama on June 10 lured 6.3 million viewers across its two plays, which HBO said was mostly in line with last year’s combined premiere number (though down 3 percent). Once TB comes back for a sixth season, executive producer Alan Ball will take a backseat role on the series to allow co-executive producer Mark Hudis to take the reins. Hudis has worked in the True Blood writers’ room with Ball since season 4.